I find nothing to celebrate on the Fourth of July. It, like all nationalist holidays, is nothing more than the largest, loudest, and obnoxious propaganda program that has ever existed. Through all the parades, fireworks, and barbeques, people rarely ask what exactly are they so effulgently praising and whether or not the should be doing it. As a result, they reaffirm their loyalty to and love for one of the most violent, bloody, and dangerous regimes in the world, one responsible for murdering over 6 million civilians in the last 20 years. The great William Lloyd Garrison called such devotion, “the latest and the most terrible form of idolatry,” and he was correct. As this article explains, it is in direct opposition to the commandments of God and the direction of His prophets.
Category: Government
The Government is the Enemy of Privacy, Safety, and Freedom
The government is the worst danger to human safety and liberty in every single nation on the planet. In this address, Glenn Greenwald cuts through the partisan propaganda and government lies to directly explain how the actions of those in political power directly threaten, violate, and destroy the basic human liberties and safety that we value so much.
Schools Shootings and The Lies of Gun Control
The tragedy of the Uvalde school shooting and the actions (or inactions) of the police during it disprove the claims of gun control advocates once and for all. In school shootings we see the exact claims of gun control advocates put to the test. We see unarmed defenseless individuals threatened by dangerous criminals. And we see just how capable the government is of protecting people. Which is to say, the government is utterly incapable of protecting anyone. The spilt blood of the victims of the Uvalde shooter are proof of this and are proof that gun control only leads to more dead people, not less.
Bioshock Infinite Reveals What Socialism is Really Like
While its storytelling left something to be desired, Bioshock Infinite still has one of the most important political, economic, and social messages of any major game put out in the last few decades. Though a fictional narrative, Infinite’s presentation of Socialism, both in its revolutionary form and what Socialist governments are actual like, is amazingly true to life. At the same time, Infinite also shows what happens to a society that embraces violence as the vehicle of change and shows the ultimate holocaustal outcome of choosing violence. Herein, I look at how the true nature of Socialism is laid bare for all who play the game, whether they like it or not.
Bioshock Infinite: Great Ideas, Faulty Storytelling
Herein I review the game Bioshock Infinite and its two DLC extensions, Burial At Sea Episodes 1 & 2. I mostly eschew gameplay (it is a typical first-person shooter with some small variety) in order to focus on the storytelling and character elements in the game. I look at the major characters of the game, important elements, and notable settings and evaluate what they tell us about one another/themselves and how they fit in the overall story. And while I find much to laud in specific memorable moments of the game, the overall storytelling in Infinite and its DLCs leave a lot to be desired. Much of it is contradictory, nonsensical, vague, ill-defined, caricaturistic, and out of character for those involved in the events taking place. The game is enjoyable and playable. It even flirts with some grand ideas. But ultimately it has plot holes big enough to drive a semi-truck through, which brings the entire experience down.
How Vladimir Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Could Destroy Him
In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The outcome seemed inevitable. The Soviet Union was one of the most powerful nations on the planet with a military rivalled only by the United States. Yet, a decade later the Soviet Union was forced to retreat, its army broken and demoralized, defeated by a band of loosely confederated hill tribes. The cost of this humiliation was unbearable, and it shattered the foundation of the Soviet Union’s power. The Soviet Union dissolved as its subject people, seeing its army beaten and sent home with its tail between its legs by Afghani fights, decided now was the time to rebel and regain their independence. The Soviet Union collapsed forever.
These are all warnings that Putin did not heed when he invaded Ukraine. Just as Afghanistan became the graveyard of the Soviet Union, so could Ukraine become the graveyard of Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime. In an effort to prove Russia’s might, Putin may have just committed political suicide and doomed his entire power structure.
Socialism is Slavery In All But Name
George Fitzhugh was one of the most influential defenders of slavery in the United States before the Civil War. A severe critic of human liberty and a free society, Fitzhugh argued that wage labor was worse than slavery and that a capitalist society did nothing but lead to the suffering and death for the millions of laborers of lived in it. In his book, “Sociology for the South,” Fitzhugh addresses the similarities between slavery and Socialism/Communism. He explains all the ways that slavery fulfills the promises and goals of Socialism, how the Socialist rejection of a free society inevitably leads to slavery, and how Socialism is the form of slavery that free societies invent to solve the ills of capitalism while still pretending to be free. As shown herein, Fitzhugh clearly explains that Socialism isn’t merely like slavery. Socialism *is* slavery and slavery *is* Socialism in very form and deed, in every way but in the usage of the word itself.
Insights Into A Free Society From America’s First Great Novelist
In addition to be a novelist who managed to give form to the American identity in his tales, James Fenimore Cooper also had a keen insight into America’s social and political culture. His writings on politics, culture, society, and government also magnificently captured the early American ideals of liberty, humanity, and freedom, preserving the wisdom and insight into these concepts that so many of us so desperately need today, but have lost. Drawing from his work, “The American Democrat,” I explore Cooper’s insights into subjects such as social equality, liberty, the basis of good government, the limits of political power, and more. If more people understood these truths then the world would be a freer, safer, more prosperous place for all.
Book Reviews: The Dystopian Technocracy of “The Last Crime”
Herein I review Ian Kennedy Martin’s, “The Last Crime,” a near future dystopia that combines Orwell and Huxley’s insights into a single story. The story also reveals the true basis of the State and why almost every revolution is as bad, if not worse, than what it replaced.
Music For The Revolution, Volume 1: The Mixtape of Liberty
In church we are taught that the songs of the righteous are a prayer to God that He delights in hearing. (D&C 25:11–12) Elder Dallin H. Oaks has taught that because of the power of music to direct our thoughts is so strong we should memorize hymns as a way to move our minds away from sinful and temptuous thoughts and as a way to better learn and understand the doctrines of the Restored Gospel.
The same is true when it comes to promoting the ideas and values of liberty. f we want to buttress the message and values of liberty within ourselves, our homes, our families, our children, and our friendships, we have to be more conscious about which kind of music we are listening to and willfully choose to immerse ourselves in the songs of freedom which promote liberty and avoid music that encourages ideas of subservience to people, organizations, substances, and ideas that weaken and destroy our humanity and liberty (for you cannot do the one without the other.)
In an effort to do this I thought I would share some of the music that I regularly play, music which embraces and promotes the ideals of liberty, freedom, and the worth of the individual. That way you too can fill your home with the doctrines, values, and spirit of liberty.